Letters, March 20

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/03/2023 (1024 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Approve booster shots

Last month, NACI recommended a spring second bivalent COVID-19 booster vaccination for those at increased risk of serious outcomes, such as seniors, especially those who haven’t been touched by COVID. I am told by our pharmacist that Manitoba Health has not approved this second bivalent COVID booster shot.

There is evidence in our wastewater and in reported cases that COVID is on the rise again. There is a report of two nursing home outbreaks. Why has Manitoba Health not yet approved this booster? Is our government afraid of upsetting some of its voter base again?

Both my husband and I received our shots as they became available. We are high-risk individuals and have not yet been affected by COVID. We continue to take precautions to reduce our risk of being infected. I am also concerned about the lives of individuals in nursing homes. It is beyond reason why our government is not approving this booster dose, as recommended by NACI.

Neither Manitoba Health nor Premier Heather Stefanson’s office have responded to my concerns.

Jeannette Kostenuik

Winnipeg

Listen to front-line workers

Re: Mess we’re in traces back to decision to close three ERs (March 17)

In addition to emergency-room closures, several other bad decisions, endorsed by out-of province consultants and management, have contributed to hospital overcrowding and long delays for health care.

Closure of the Misericordia Urgent Care Center removed a convenient, after-hours health-care access site in central Winnipeg.

Transferring a successful orthopedic program from Seven Oaks Hospital into the busy Grace Hospital placed strain on the latter’s surgical capacity.

Refusing to raise the artificially low provincial funding cap of $133,000 per bed has stymied construction of new personal care homes.

All of this, plus COVID-19, has highlighted the need to listen to front-line providers whose cautionary advice was largely ignored during hospital consolidation.

Wayne Manishen, MD

Winnipeg

Missteps on health care

Re: Patient transport quality challenged in legislature (March 15)

It is abundantly clear that Heather Stefanson’s sudden and startling commitment to Manitoba health care is gratuitous and politically motivated in advance of a provincial election that must be held by Oct. 3, involving a campaign that will be the political fight of her career. Once again, this month Stefanson is ranked as the least popular premier in all of Canada (Premier Stefanson’s approval rating slips, March 15). Stefanson has much to overcome, most of which is of her own doing.

The resonance of Tom Brodbeck’s commentary (Stefanson, Gordon speak in incomprehensible election-year tongues, March 3) on the gibberish, repetitive evasion, non sequiturs, convoluted and meaningless “answers” to journalists’ questions, and generalized incoherent politico-speak of Manitoba’s former and current health ministers, Stefanson and Audrey Gordon, underlines the callousness of the Manitoba PCs as it relates to the catastrophic past and ongoing state of Manitoba health care (‘Urgent action’ required to keep MDs here, Doctors Manitoba says, March 15).

It is to be noted that as part of the Pallister team, Stefanson helped eviscerate Manitoba health care; then as health minister, was invisible and petulant during a deadly pandemic; followed, as premier, by her now infamous “coulda, woulda, shoulda” mantra when asked how the government could have better handled its COVID response.

Questioned in the legislature last year about the necessity for an inquest regarding the inexplicable death of Krystal Mousseau, a COVID-19 patient who died following a failed attempt to airlift her to a hospital in Ottawa from Manitoba, Stefanson displayed utter disregard for human life, and instead referred to her “proud parent moment” in order to boast about her son’s high school team, who won a provincial hockey championship.

Stefanson’s grand loosening of provincial purse strings, for all manner of previously starved social and health-care programs, corresponds to the high level of anxiety experienced by the PCs as they realize that they will be soundly defeated as the governing party of Manitoba, owing in large part to Stefanson’s murky relationship with clear communication.

As a university educator, I would concur with Tom Brodbeck that Stefanson’s relationship with language is fraught with imprecision, repetitive semantic voids and ultimately meaningless utterances.

Kenneth Meadwell

Winnipeg

Buck stops with the premier

Something doesn’t add up with Mental Health and Community Wellness Minister Janice Morley-Lecomte (PCs wilfully obtuse about harm reduction, March 17). Considering her background with CFS, women’s abuse shelters, and according to her personal website, which states that she has special training in addictions and counselling management, I find it confusing to believe that she would not be supporting supervised consumption sites (SCS) in a more robust manner.

In my experience with trying to introduce change to the mental-health-care system, I realized that even though the minister I was working with put together a reasonable proposal, the final say comes from the premier. It would appear that perhaps Minister Morley-Lecomte may be in that predicament where she can only put forward the sanctioned proposals of her premier, which may not represent her own ideas and concepts.

Bill 33, while an attempt to advance the conversation, is a poor proposal intended to control services by getting in the way of progress. That the PCs have put forth this bill shows they are still mired in their outdated views and opinions, not embracing the facts available to anyone who can read.

If a gathering of all the families who have lost a loved one to addictions would present to the PCs, they would see a massive crowd with broken hearts and a hole in their lives.

SCS are part of an answer to helping those who suffer with addictions. We also need more psychiatrists, better access to all mental health professionals, and the funding to make a difference.

Bonnie Bricker

Winnipeg

Route of the problem?

Re: “Small price to pay,” Letters (March 15)

Winnipeg has a system of major routes that is set out on city maps. Being a resident of the city, I am still amazed by the complex naming of streets, but visitors to the city usually find that using the route numbers makes our city quite navigable.

For those having difficulty with the renaming of Bishop Grandin Boulevard, maybe try “Route 165”?

Ed Labossiere

Winnipeg

Hour of discontent

I was happy to see that by the end of John Kosowski’s letter (“Time will tell,” March 16) he had accepted that the twice-annual time change is a hardship.

What disappointed me, at the same time, was his inability to differentiate between elective and fun time changes (sports and personal travel, for example) and the time changes that are mandatory and known to be harmful.

Once he has learned the difference, perhaps we can have a mature discussion on this topic.

Kevin McGregor

Winnipeg